This invention relates to a radio telephone base station which includes, or is associated with, monitoring means for monitoring test calls.
A radio telephone base station for a cellular system communicates by radio with portable handsets carried by subscribers to the system. The base station has a main antenna (providing receive and transmit functions) and a second or so-called diverse antenna providing a receive function only. At or adjacent the base station is located a monitoring means which is like a dummy portable handset in that the monitoring means has an antenna and test calls can be set up between the base station antennas and the monitoring means antenna, in this case to test the correct functioning of the base station.
The need for the monitoring means to have an antenna has disadvantages: apart from the cost of antenna construction and erection there can be difficulties in obtaining planning consent for a further antenna, particularly if it is proposed to add monitoring means to an existing base station. The invention aims to provide a base station with monitoring means which do not require an antenna additional to the antennas of the base station.